Monday, March 27, 2006

Serbia needs to be realistic about Kosovo, Serbia-Montenegro minister says

Text of report in English by Belgrade-based Radio B92 text website on 27 March

Belgrade/Pristina, 27 March: Serbia-Montenegro Human and Minority Rights Minister Rasim Ljajic has said that Serbia needs to use more arguments in the Kosovo status discussions, and arguments which are not based on myths.

Ljajic said that Serbia needed to show that it was ready to compromise and that it should be aware that the situation will not go back to the way it once was.

"It is doubtful that the Albanians will accept Belgrade having control and that is why an original solution must be found, like a solution was found in Bosnia that had never been heard of until then," Ljajic said.

Great Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a congratulatory letter to Kosovo's new Prime Minister Agim Ceku, stated that the implementation of human rights standards must be Kosovo's primary goal.

"This will help Kosovo reach European norms for creating democratic institutions, successfully administering and creating a legal state," Blair said.

I understand your concern but when was the last time that a leader in the Balkans has addressed his citizens using two minority languages in the parliament? Çeku did this in peace and we are all proud of him. He proved himself in war as well, albeit for a short period.

You also should not generalize by using "minorities." Kosovakosovo.com has an opinion piece by a K-Turkish leader and nowhere does he mention Çeku as a threat. Mr. Ljajic above is Bosniak and by his comments he doesn't see the state of Serbia as protector of Bosniaks in Kosova.

If by minorities you mean Serbs, then the situation is different. But I doubt it matters who is at the top for Serbs - they have stayed out of the government no matter who was the PM. At least now things are moving forward and Çeku has the ability and the guts to deliver.

K-Serbs have to wake up and face the reality. The train will move on even without them.

Ivanovic addressing..well idk i saw the footage of the news...him speaking in albanian was two thumbs up. I didn't hear him say minorities or anything just that something about serbs..kinda amazed he didn't speak in serbian then have someone translate. Everytime i hear ppl talking in albanian it lights my heart up, even if that guy is a serb.

I read with great interest the piece by Scott Taylor. These are my conclusions:

1. He was in Belgrade discussing the "future" status of Kosovo. Well, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The peace talks for the final status of Kosova are being held in Austria, not in Serbia -- and that smells of bias to me.

2. Taylor's piece lacks in detail to such an extend that what he wrote is not credible. There were no witness statements, no interviews by Canadian soldiers or Serb civilians. Yes, we know about the Medak Pocket and Operation Storm, but what makes General Ceku personally responsible for any alleged crimes is not discussed. There is no detail whatsoever. What Taylor wrote is too vague to be taken seriously.

3. Finally, this is why the ICTY was established in the Hague and if any of these alleged crimes lead to Ceku he would have been indicted. It is clear that Serbs don't like Ceku, but their charges simply don't stand up to indict him. Haradinaj was indicted (innocent until proven guilty), and it will be impossible to explain why Ceku would not be indicted if there was any truth to these allegations.

Think about this, maybe General Ceku has not changed, maybe Serb's opinion of Ceku was wrong and that is what should change.

Just because someone beat you militarily does not mean that he committed crimes.

"Taylor's piece lacks in detail to such an extend that what he wrote is not credible. There were no witness statements, no interviews by Canadian soldiers or Serb civilians. Yes, we know about the Medak Pocket and Operation Storm, but what makes General Ceku personally responsible for any alleged crimes is not discussed. There is no detail whatsoever. What Taylor wrote is too vague to be taken seriously."

This was not a court case but an article. His article referenced to the observations of the Canadian soldiers. Ceku was a general of that Corpus that operated in Medak Pocket and therefore he is responsible on the same basis as general Pavkovic.

"Haradinaj was indicted (innocent until proven guilty), and it will be impossible to explain why Ceku would not be indicted if there was any truth to these allegations."

Following your logic, Milosevic is innocent since he was not proven guilty.

"Think about this, maybe General Ceku has not changed, maybe Serb's opinion of Ceku was wrong and that is what should change."

I am thinking, and maybe he did change, and i truly did hope that he will improve the life of Serbs in KiM as he promises. But we must not allow a war criminal to buy his way out.

"Just because someone beat you militarily does not mean that he committed crimes."

A defeat i can admit. But lets not fool ourselves, the defeat was from NATO not from UCK. But in any way we were defeated in Kosovo and Metohija, and I admit that. However this does not give you the right to praise war criminals. It does not give you the right to slaughter innocent civilians only because they are against you megalistic idea.

Last time I checked Serbia didn't indict Çeku over the Medak Pocket or Storm but over Kosova. This indictment came in 2002 not in 1994 or 1996. Just because he is a strong politician that is moving Kosova forward and is preaching coexistence, you guys went berserk.Show me another military leader from the Yugoslav conflicts with the same attitude as Çeku.

As you may know, Çeku joined the war in Kosova only in May and his main goal and that of NATO for him was to make UÇK a forward air controller for NATO. Ivan, you forgot that Milosevic was given the chance over and over. He didn't improve. Biljana Plavsic was actually rewarded accordingly by The Hague for her constructive post-war role as PM by sending her to a jail that has its own equestrian club.

I guess this young Serian man was also stating his opinion and this is how siptars ended the discussion.

As i said before, the problem is not so much in your politicians, but in the psychopaths that apparently are in too large number in the siptar population.

Please read the article:

MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro, March 28 (Reuters) - A Serb man was stabbed in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo on Tuesday and hundreds of Serbs gathered at the scene to demonstrate, hospital officials and witnesses said.

The 19-year-old Serbwas "seriously wounded" when he was stabbed in the stomach, hospital director Milan Ivanovic told Reuters. Witnesses said he was attacked on the main bridge by two men who had crossed from the mainly Albanian south.

Mitrovica, in the north of Serbia's United Nations-run province, has been divided at the river between Serbs and Albanians since the 1998-99 war and has seen some of the worst postwar violence in Kosovo.

Clashes at the bridge in March 2004 sparked two days of Kosovo-wide Albanian riots that killed 19 people and destroyed hundreds of Serb properties. NATO soldiers and U.N. police officers have relaxed security at the bridge over the past year.

Negotiations are under way to decide the province's fate, with the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority pushing for independence seven years after NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians.

Canadians were always biased and on the side of the serbs in every war the serbs took par because of the powerful lobby of serbs in Canada. Here is a video especially mae for the canadian serbs by the serb rapists http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3333105947228213888&pl=trueFurthermore I have personally talked to bosnians who claim that General Mckenzie of UNPROFOR raped little girls in his hideout in Sarajevo and even today is being paid by the Serbian Unity Congress to make statements like " NATO bombed the wrong side in Kosova".

As you can see in the link this is only an Opinion! I don't think there is need for more comments on this."

Just because it is an opinion dosen't mean that everything in it is false, it means that it is probably biased and supposed to give you the persons point of view. You cannot dismiss such serious charges because it is partially biased.

I dont deny now and wont ever, that Serbian paramilitary committed many crimes in all the Balkan Wars. However that does NOT permit all the non-Serb leaders accused of war crimes to be simply dismissed of charges because they won the war.

No doubt the US helped get the charge lifted of course. Its funny how you like the United States so much in Kosovo. What you dont realize is that you were sitting on possible 2 billion dollars worth of resource mines that they got control of and sold to US companies for 3.5million.

I will give you a friendly warning, they will be your friends as long as they need you for something you have or to use you for their agenda.